Gatwick Airport (UK) suspends flights due to Drone activity

[gnirtS]

But some of the comments coming from the public frankly amaze me. One female stated tha the airport had "breached her human rights", presumably by not allowing her to fly.

Welcome to the snowflake generation. Sadly the UK is getting full of precious little people like this.

 

[timinator]

Welcome to the snowflake generation. Sadly the UK is getting full of precious little people like this.

"Snowflake Generation!" that's funny.

Do you think if it was a tello there would still be such mass hysteria over this whole thing?

 

[gnirtS]

Do you think if it was a tello there would still be such mass hysteria over this whole thing?

Its the UK so yes there would. The standard response is complete hysteria and overreaction to every single situation.

 

[Slim.slamma]

Gatwick drone - Parents of arrested ex-soldier claim he's innocent

Wipe that smile off your face

 

[JDawg]

Her eyebrows... guilty.

 

[Slim.slamma]

$100k a minute$

Gatwick Airport is a complete joke.
If they weren’t prepared for goofy & lady brows then that’s on them.
Hit em in the pocket

 

[Jolly Dodger]

It said on the news that bloke was at work when the incident occurred and his boss and neighbours backed up his alibi.

 

[gjmphoto]

It said on the news that bloke was at work when the incident occurred and his boss and neighbours backed up his alibi.

The boss is questionable...it's the father of his ex-wife with whom he has a child. Can't go by that one. But the neighbors are a good one.

I find it hard to believe it was just the two of them....and why? I suspect we'll hear more.

 

[gnirtS]

Still not charged......

UK they can hold without charge for 24hrs and request an extension to a max 96 hours if its not a terrorism offence (which this isn't).
These may have just been idiots deciding to fly a drone in the worst possible place and time while this was ongoing.

Then again, nobody knows how many ACTUAL drone sightings there were so cant put a time on it.

 

[ABLomas]

If we can get an International standard agreed and backed by major Governments (as this isn't a local issue), then all drones will include Geo-Fencing, and all Drones will be detectable by a common version of DJI's AeroScope (except those that are built and modified to not be, which you can't legislate against anyway!!).

What you are proposing, are basically "all should buy DJI stuff" - no DIY solutions (who will spend $$$ on their custom FC certifications? So far hundreds of custom - not derived - FC designs exist), no INS development (as you need coords, bye Paparazzi and other OSS projects with innovation), no drone racing (nobody uses GPS on them), no micro-indoor (again no GPS on them), no custom video-data-transfer solutions (bye, wifibroadcast, fpv-blue, etc...), <....>
In other words - "only DJI stuff should be allowed in shops, everything else should be banned, including information how-to-DIY or development". Working for chinese company, eh?

BTW, you do not need aeroscopes or multi-million stuff for tracking copter, which is transmitting something (telemetry, video stream, <....>) - AD8318 (entire board with connectors and stuff ~20$ on ali), teensy (as ADC) (10$), OLED screen (2$) and wideband directional antenna (DIY in 20min) - done, you can track any copter in air without visibility, in few km range (depends on transmitting power) and do not require any propieritary DJI solutions. Done that few years ago - so why add requirement for aeroscope?
But if you want to be really stealth and resistant - go with INS instead of GPS (OSS solutions aren't so precise, but works), disable all telemetry/control/video stuff, just waypoints - done. Jammers won't do anything to you (unless they are super-powerfull so disrupt sensor work), you also won't be traceable using common tools. Only radar and eyes will work as detection tools and direct hit will be required to crash it (bullet, laser, whatever). I guess, this was done on airport, because all common tools proved to be useless....

 

[ataraxia]

The boss is questionable...it's the father of his ex-wife with whom he has a child. Can't go by that one. But the neighbors are a good one.

I find it hard to believe it was just the two of them....and why? I suspect we'll hear more.

If the motive is a protest against air traffic and noise above residential areas, then the neighbours are questionable too.

 

[FoxhallGH]

What you are proposing, are basically "all should buy DJI stuff" - no DIY solutions (who will spend $$$ on their custom FC certifications? So far hundreds of custom - not derived - FC designs exist), no INS development (as you need coords, bye Paparazzi and other OSS projects with innovation), no drone racing (nobody uses GPS on them), no micro-indoor (again no GPS on them), no custom video-data-transfer solutions (bye, wifibroadcast, fpv-blue, etc...), <....>
In other words - "only DJI stuff should be allowed in shops, everything else should be banned, including information how-to-DIY or development". Working for chinese company, eh?

BTW, you do not need aeroscopes or multi-million stuff for tracking copter, which is transmitting something (telemetry, video stream, <....>) - AD8318 (entire board with connectors and stuff ~20$ on ali), teensy (as ADC) (10$), OLED screen (2$) and wideband directional antenna (DIY in 20min) - done, you can track any copter in air without visibility, in few km range (depends on transmitting power) and do not require any propieritary DJI solutions. Done that few years ago - so why add requirement for aeroscope?
But if you want to be really stealth and resistant - go with INS instead of GPS (OSS solutions aren't so precise, but works), disable all telemetry/control/video stuff, just waypoints - done. Jammers won't do anything to you (unless they are super-powerfull so disrupt sensor work), you also won't be traceable using common tools. Only radar and eyes will work as detection tools and direct hit will be required to crash it (bullet, laser, whatever). I guess, this was done on airport, because all common tools proved to be useless....

I understand what you are saying, and nope - I'm not an employee of or evangelist for DJI - but I was looking at this from the point of view of the CAA classifications next year. Maybe I'm mistaken, but my understanding was that the racing drones were under the weight class that CAA will be asking us to get licensing / registration for?
Yes - I am disappointed that DJI's competitors may be making cheaper drones because they don't have the same social responsibility and aren't proactively pushing geo-fencing and tracking methods - so there is going to be a problem there if standards [and attitudes] aren't adopted across the board.
However, from what you are saying, there are so many ways to make a drone 'invisible' and bullet proof that in essence, we are all going to have to hire a square mile in the middle of the nearest desert, and take turns to fly our drones ... If nothing is done about this - then the alternative is that all you have talked about will disappear, because you'll either need to be Military / para-Military, or need part 107 / PfCO qual's to fly a drone anywhere else! Something has to be done, and we need 'solutions' not problems - otherwise the regulators are only going to have knee-jerk reactions from the general public to go on ...

 

[gnirtS]

Making the PfCO a sensible price not the unattractive utter utter ripoff it currently is would be a start.

 

[ataraxia]

Making the PfCO a sensible price not the unattractive utter utter ripoff it currently is would be a start.

Totally. I really want to take a proper pilot's course, but I simply don't have £750-£1200 at the moment. Keep the current courses in place but offer some middle ground which gives slightly less permissions imo, basically a "they're not a full commercial pilot, but not just a casual hobbyist who's just bought their first drone and doesn't know how to use it".

 

[johnnybflyguy]

Breaking news the two people arrested by the police have been released from custody with no charges being made.

 

[MavicMikeMinh]

And they now have to live with the fact that their pictures, and lots of personal details were spread out over half the web, including this forum.

One more reason not to use FarceBook.

The other problem: The perpetrators have still not been found.

 

[zocalo]

Breaking news the two people arrested by the police have been released from custody with no charges being made.

Yep, thought it didn't add up when his boss gave him such an easily verifiable alibi. Seems like he was probably just a pilot with a bunch of drones who happened to live in the area. More info at the BBC.

Of course, this means the real idiot(s) behind this are still at large.

 

[Lady Rover]

And their house, computer, life and x-mas prep have been thoroughly messed up.

Good thing they are released before x-mas.
Hope they receive a huge "we're sorry" cheque.

Apart from that, yes a race drone would have been perhaps the best way to get that thing down. Low-cost, easy to deploy and with little to no risk of collateral damage.

 

[gnirtS]

Apart from that, yes a race drone would have been perhaps the best way to get that thing down. Low-cost, easy to deploy and with little to no risk of collateral damage.

and extremely illegal.

 

[zocalo]

and extremely illegal.

The idea was that this would be under the supervision of the authorities while flights were grounded, so pretty much an automatic CAA waiver in other words. People can - and do - operate drones on airfields under specific circumstances, of which this might possibly have qualified.

Whether it would even be possible to track another drone back to it's landing point (presumably only by using FPV from the chase drone), the false positives it would no doubt generate, and the practicalities of having a chase drone in the right place at the right time (the perimeter of Gatwick is ~10km) is another matter.

Either way, it appears to have been rebuffed, but at least it demonstrated that the majority of the RC community is as appalled by this as almost everyone else. That should hopefully count for something once this inevitably gets discussed is Parliament with a view to changes to the upcoming legislation and registration requirements.